St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-04-07
a rRIp mo- CALIFORNIA---NO. Nv.
Some Towns i'm Texas.-One Thousand
Miles i'm the ''Lone STAR state.-The
Fatal Drouth.

turn from Galveston gave glimpse of
another pleasant city named for Tex
as most illustrious sou. There is a
cluster of thriving cities in this pOr-
ton of Texas which contains from l5,-
600 to 10000 people, of which San An
tonic is an important centre. The
thing of most marked interest at San
Antonio is the Alamo-an old stone
church which was used also as a forth
ficatiOn and place of refuge. 1t was in
this church that Santa Anna massacred
Travis and his band of l44 men after
long siege, before Texas became one of
the United States and while she was
lighting Mexico. The Mexicans num-
bered thousands. After looking upon
scenes once so tragic, the party must
have some relief, so they visited the
plaza in the evening which was gay
sight, lighted and filed with Mexican
booths for the sale of coffee, chocolate,
cakes, etc. The gambling places were
also taken in, but none of our party
were. On returning to the train
dance hall was passed, and some of the
festive ones could not get by a place
where they could hear the melOdiOus
voice of the fiddler calling out "All
hands round," and so they went in to
see, if not to take hand. 1t so hap
pened that the place was in some dis
repute, and the police had planned to
'pnllr it that same evening. There
was good deal of joking the next
morning at the expense of some of the
Boston men, but no one was "given
away"
The party has found no little to
amuse in it's trip of two or three thou
sand miles. At Chattanooga the
freight house floor was cleared and
some cOlored boys came in with fiddle
and tambourine and gave an "enter-
tainment", which was unique and
greatly enjoyed. At Galveston some
interesting business signs were discov-
cred. Over one saloon appeared the
following: "Beer. Men Wanted to
Unload Schooners. Enquire Within"
And again, out at the farthest point of
land was this truthful message, also
over saloon door: "The Last Chance.
By Pat Murphy"
The state of Texas is an enigma. In
the preface of that Wonderful book,
"Our Country" written by Rev. Josiah
Strong, pastor of the Central COngre
gational church at Cincinnati, the wri-
ter (Rev DR.. Austin Phelps) endorses
the work in the following terse and
strong language "This is a powerful
book. Its great strength lies in its
facts" In this book one may read:
"Place the fifty million inhabitants of
the United States all in Texas, and the
population would not be as dense as
that of Germany" And again, "After
allowing, say $4,000 square miles for
desert Texas could have produced
all our food crops in 1879 could
have raised the worlds supply of cot
ton, 10000 900 bales, and
then have had remaining, for cattle
range, IL territory larger than the state
of New York" Further on, in speak
ing of this same state, occurs this eX
preston "Driven from the plains east
of the Rocky mountains the Great
American Desert seems to have be
come "A fugitive and vagabond on the
face of the earth"
Such are some of the statements
made in the book of which DR.. Phelps
says ''its great strength lies i'll its
facts" 1t is not the purpose of this
letter To deny statements made by any
one but simply to report things as
have seen them. Up to noon of the
10Th of March this party had travelled
a full thousand miles U002 miles to be
exact), in Texas. At least six hun
dred of these thousand miles have
been through desert. People along
the line have insisted that the country
was fine back IA few miles, and perhaps
it is, but it seems singular that a big
railroad should be made through the
poorest part of country, where no To-
cal business can ever be hoped for.
The rich "plains of Texas" is ia
miliar phrase. The cattle ranches here
are notorious in the East aud people
are constantly RECALLED with stories of
the fat beeves fed here for the St.
Louis and Chicago markets. Not
few eastern men have invested their
money in these ranches, and the con-
ditiOn of the cattle here is matter of
interest to many others. For the past
two years a large part of Texas has
been afflicted with drOuth. In the
eleven northern counties it has been
most severe, and agriculture is nearly
at a standstill, and people are on the
verge of starvation. But this drouth
is also getting very severe in southern
Texas. In much of the territory
through which we have passed there
has been only one good rain in year
and half, aud that was last Septem-
Der. AS consequence the little for
age along the streams is all gone, and
as cattle cannot live without water,
they linger within a mile or SO of
streams and literally eat every green
thing and good many dry ones. They
are now simply skeletons with scarce
strength enough to get up when once
down.
elf we don't have rain within thirty
days." said one ranchman to the writ
Or GahaIf our stock will die - $40